Paris Page 2

After grabbing my metro ticket ($10 euro from the Airport to the hotel. Beat that in LA trying to go from LAX to OC!!!) I hop on the first RER train. As you can tell from the pictures I provided, the metro is clean, cheap and by far the most convenient form of travel in France. I wish we had a system like this in LA. I could give up my car and not be worried at all.

After a 1/2 hour ride the train makes the stop at Gare du Nord. Gare du Nord is the main terminal where all the trains in Paris meet. All the Metro and RER lines go to Gare du Nord and from there you can go anywhere in Paris, France or pretty much Europe! I grab my next train which drops me off right close to my hotel. Unfortunately the first person I spoke to gave me the wrong hotel and I ended up walking about 2 miles to the other ETAP hotel.

Funny moment. While walking to the wrong hotel I noticed a car trying to do a u-turn on the small street in Pantin. Of course, he ended up running over the sidewalk to do so. In the middle of the sidewalk he ran over a manhole cover and BONK! Down his car went. Teetering on the unibody and rocking between the road and the manhole, his poor little front wheel drive car had no traction and was resting on the body, STUCK! That's got to be one of the most hilarious car scenes I saw in Paris, next to the Taxi ride :)

After getting to the wrong hotel I was given directions to the right hotel, grabbed a cab for 4 euros and was finally at my 5 day home in Paris.

I walk in and say what I will learn to say at every greeting in Paris: "BONJOUR! Parlez- vous anglais?" which loosely translated means - Hello! Do you speak English? Unfortunately the clerks's English was as bad as my French. Their system wasn't accepting my American Express and I was worried I wouldn't be able to stay there for the night. That's where all the Americans coming to Paris for the vacation/concert were staying. After about 1/2 hour my friend Mark from Orléans shows up. He's a very cool American who teaches English at a high school in Orléans, France.

After several tries with my cards (which do not work) Mark offers his which goes right through. That's thank you number one of 1000 to come, Mark! I grab my bags and toss them in the room and grab my camera. I snapped a picture of how small but cute the room was and we head down the street to grab something to eat.

We were going to wait for our friend, Dusty, but "Mr. Map King" was lost on the metro (hehe) and was going to be very late. Mark gave Dusty the right directions and told him we'd meet him at the hotel later. Mark and I headed to a small Turkish restaurant just a few blocks from the hotel. There we macked down on some great food and were waited on by a girl who, as soon as she realized we were from the US could not stop staring at us (in a good way!).

We needed to head to an ATM so I could give Mark back the cash for the room. Also, my phone wasn't working in Paris so Mark and I headed to an internet Café. I called AT&T to fix the problem and post on the Pyromania forums that all was well.

After a while we met up with Dusty and made introductions. We walked down the street to a small pub which we have affectionately dubbed "The fuck you" bar. Here's the story. Mark, Dusty and I say there for at least an hour drinking the French beers. After a while, Mark had to head back as he had a class to teach in the morning. He said he would try and meet us in the afternoon for site seeing. So that left me and Dusty. We tried to start up a conversation with the bartender. I had been tipping him well all night and I guess he wasn't used to that.

After a few minutes of frustrating attempts to communicate, he brought out a piece of paper and began drawing. On the paper he drew "France" as he said in a thick French accent. Then he drew a dot and said "Paris". Then he drew a small dot in the Northwest of Paris and said the city (which I think was Pontoise) and I understood he was from there. Then he drew a map of the UK above France and said "Vous?". (you)

I replied "Pas Royal Mini, Etas Uni". His jaw dropped. He thought we were from the UK but as soon as I said "Not UK, United States" he was floored. I guess he doesn't get many Americans in his bar, especially during the winter. As this scene progressed, a man from Algeria who spoke broken but somewhat understandable English introduced himself. At first I was worried being an American in Paris. But they were both very friendly. He said "You are from Etas Uni, no?" I said "Yes" and he said "We hate Bush. We like Etas Uni, we hate Bush". I raised my beer and said "I'm right with you, brother!". We all laughed. That eased any tension and we all relaxed.

After a while I showed my California license to the Bartender and he figured out easily that my last name was French (obviously!). But I told the Algerian man that my mom was from Austria (she was born there). Then the Algerian man and the Bartender were arguing about my last name. They started laughing as I explained they were both right. Then the bartender looks at me, smiles, then looks at the Algerian man and in plain English says: "FUCK YOU!". The only clear English words he said all night!!!! We all started laughing so hard!!! It was very funny.

Not long after, Dusty and I headed to the hotel. At around 2am I headed to my room and flipped on the TV. I was surprised to find the Simpsons were on and dubbed in French. They are funny enough in English but dubbed in French was hilarious! After watching the BBC for a while I set the alarm and headed to bed.

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